Welcome to the openCards Colletctors-Information for The Lord of the Rings
The collector's info on openCards describes all relevant information regarding a specific card from the point-of-view of a collector. This includes the rarity, to which expansion it belongs, if it's a foil card or not, if reprints of this card exist and so on. Here is a list of all those card details as they are differentiated on openCards (independent of the game to which the card belongs):
- the card's rarity
- which expansion or special set the card belongs to
- copyright information printed on the card
- information regarding the 'print style'. This includes
- print color discerning between color / high color / black & white
- border color (white border, black border, silver border)
- special printing effects (non-foil, foil, hologram card)
- the card's orientation (standard upright or resembling a widescreen)
- is the card printed on both sides?
- does the card contain different parts relevant to the game,
e.g. does it represent "two-cards-in-one"?
- list of reprints of this card
- list of 'personas' regarding the card
Here is a thorough description of separate details regarding Lord of the Rings:
A card's rarity
For collectors the rarity of a card is one of the most important bits of information. Which rarities may exist depends upon the different games. Each manufacturer has his own agenda on the number of distinct rarities necessary. On a separate page we have a detailed listing, which rarities we deem relevant regarding Lord of the Rings.
In general the rarity depents on the print run of a particular card. Cards that were printed more often are worth more than cards printed only comparitively less. In almost all game systems the split into common, uncommon and rare cards can be found, which expresses this relation.
Apart from this there are other rarities e.g. for "fixed" cards to be found in starter boxes or for specially produced cards like tournament foils. Which levels of rarities are represented in distinct game systems is therefor not discussed here, but at the respective game systems.
In the long run supply and demand will determine the worth of a card. The demand will be influenced by the collectibility (depending upon the image on the card or the artist who painted it) and the game strength of a card. This matter is complicated by the fact that in most cases the manufacturers do not provide exact information on print runs. Because of this you can't simply assume that two rare cards from different expansions of a game system have the same amount of copies printed.
Which expansion or special set a card belongs to
On openCards all cards are catalogized by expansions. This helps in identifying cards and to distinguish between different reprint or similar cards. Furthermore we distinguish between "normal" expansions and special sets, even though this is not made easier by some general factors concerning all game systems, and for each and every game system these "special sets" exist with different parameters.
Regarding the distinction between reprints of Lord of the Rings cards please consult our page concerning the Universal Card ID, which identifies every card without a margin of error.
Copyright
For all cards showing copyright information this has been included in the Collector's Info. The year of copyright may be different from the actual street date of an expansion. That is why we included information on the actual dates when cards were made available to the public in our section Inside - Expansions.
Information regarding the so-called 'print style'
Under the heading 'print style' we provide the following information:
- print color
- border color
- special printing effects
- orientation of a card
- double-sided print
- differentiation of distinct regions
print color
Here we distinguish between cards printed in color or black & white. For the game Lord of the Rings this distinction is not relevant because all card are printed in "color".
Border color of a card
In general collectible game cards are printed with a black border, probably, because black can both be clearly distinguished from the remaining printed image, but looks also "neutral" compared with the colorful images and icons.
But other border colors like silver or white also exist to show the difference of a reprint to the original or indicate that cards belong to an unlimited print run.
In case of Lord of the Rings only cards with a black border style have been printed.
Special effects on a card
Examples for "special effects" would be foil-enhanced cards or holograms. We distinguish between non-foil cards, foil cards and hologram cards. For Lord of the Rings several foil cards have been manufactured, e.g. tournament foils or cards from Reflections. So far, no hologram cards exist in this environment.
Orientation of a card
Unter this heading we distinguish the orientation of cards, i.e. how you have to hold it to read it. In 99% of all cases cards are printed with the shorter edges at top and bottom and the longer sides to the left and right. But there are also cards where the larger edges are to be orientated at the top and bottom to be read without difficulties.
In Lord of the Rings all card from the type site are printed in "widescreen format".
Double-sided printing
Here we distinguish cards that are printed on both sides with information relevant to the game. Most cards in a game system have the same "backside", but there are exceptions.
In LotR there are no cards with different back sides.
Differentiation of distinct regions on a card
Another rare special case is the collection of game-relevant information on a card that virtually makes this card "two-cards-in-one". The orientation of the card may in this cases be responsible for the proper use in the game.
There are no such cards in LotR.
Reprints
In this section all reprints are listed. Afurther discussion of the term "reprint" (what exactly IS a reprint? etc.) is to be found in the section Universal-Card-Tools-ID.
In the Collector's Info every reprint is listed with its UCT-ID and the expansion or special set, from which it originates (the card title of original and reprints is always the same, not counting errata concerning the title). We also inform you if the listed cards are "first prints", meaning the chronological first print of a reprinted card. In this cases we added "first print" in brackets after the card's listing.
'personas'
the concept of 'personas' is used in several game systems in order to indicate that several distinct cards all relate to the same person.
In LotR this concept was used on several card types (Minion, Companion, Ally).
In the 'personas'-list we always list the card title, the UCT-ID of the card and the expansion (or special set), in which it was published.
